GM plant officials explain hiring plans

GM plant officials explain hiring plans

Mass hiring expected to double the workforce at General Motors’ Spring Hill plant will be done through a combination of employee referrals and outside hiring, officials said.

The addition of personnel to build new products combined with a large number of retirements expected among the plant’s existing workforce will pave the way for the hiring of more local residents than in the past, a plant spokesperson said.

Last August, the automaker announced it would increase spending at the plant to $350 million to accommodate two new yet-to-be named vehicles. The slated investment added $167 million to a previously announced $183 million and is expected to create or retain about 1,800 jobs.

The Spring Hill plant currently has about 2,000 employees.

In the past, the company has used a referral program in which current employees can recommend that a person be hired, or an internal process. Those people remain in a pool of potential hires from which GM can pick.

Outside — or external — candidates will be considered for the next round of hiring, in addition to internal recommendations, GM Spring Hill Manufacturing spokesperson Kristy Bergstrom said.

“There will be some internal hiring, but there is a certain amount of that hiring that would be done externally because we have so many employees that are eligible to retire in the next few years,” Bergstrom said. “As far as I know, nobody has any return rights to Spring Hill. That kind of component is not there, whereas it used to be there.”

The percentages of employees that would be hired internally and externally were not immediately available.

Bergstrom said she could not specify how many employees are either eligible or nearing retirement, but she said it was “pretty high.”

“The face of our workforce in Spring Hill is going to change dramatically over the next couple years because we have so many that are right at that cusp of being eligible to retire,” she said.

Mass hiring is at least 9-10 months away, Bergstrom said.

GM officials are reviewing local job candidates who have remained in a pool of potential hires for the last few years, Bergstrom said. The company is currently reaching out to the candidates to see if they are still interested in working at the Spring Hill plant. If the potential hires are interested, they will remain in the referral pool, she said.

United Auto Workers Local 1853 Bargaining Chairman Mike Herron said the UAW bargaining agreement approved in December included a provision that current employees could refer one person each.

The agreement also came with the announcement of 384 additional jobs in Spring Hill.

“It is a perk for the workers here locally to refer somebody that they know is a hard worker and somebody that they know would like to have an opportunity within the plant,” Herron said.

Referral hiring is a historic practice, and Nissan has a similar program it uses, Herron said.

Details surrounding the hiring process have not been set up and would likely occur after a product announcement at Spring Hill, he said.

“It is our goal to create jobs here for people in Middle Tennessee,” Herron said. “There are a lot of people here locally that are really looking forward to this.”

If the additional 1,800 jobs come to Spring Hill, GM will more than double its current workforce with the December announcement of 384 jobs. In the August announcement, GM was careful to use the phrasing “create or retain” when discussing job projections.

“We know it will take 1,800 people to build these new products,” Bergstrom said in August. “These could be added within the plant or shifted within the facility.”

In September, GM announced that the Spring Hill engine facility would add about 100 more workers to meet increasing demand for the Ecotec 2.5 liter, 4-cyclinder motor.

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